13 (CD)

Black Sabbath

Amoeba Review

06/10/2013

It’s true — the new Black Sabbath album, featuring Ozzy Osbourne on vocals on a studio album for the first time since 1978, is not a disaster. In fact, it’s as true to the ’70s version of Black Sabbath as can be hoped, considering the band are in their 60s and it’s their first album together in 25 years. Eight-minute opener “End of the Beginning” shows the full force of what to expect — Tommy Iommi’s guitar and Geezer Butler’s bass bring maximum sludge, while Ozzy’s effected vocals hover and cut through like a banshee. Renowned producer Rick Rubin doesn’t clean things up too much, leaving the band to its devices in order to capture it in its purest form. This result is that songs like “God Is Dead?” deliver on the dirgey dread their names would imply, coming full circle with bold, distorted blues riffs and occult lyrics, calling to mind Sabbath classics from “Black Sabbath” to “Sweet Leaf.” “When will this nightmare be over?” Ozzy sings in “God is Dead?” Hopefully never, if the new incarnation of Black Sabbath keeps coming through with new material as strong as this. 13 is a heavy dose of classic metal from the inimitable masters of the genre.